Comedy Think Like a Man shines again on top of the box office thanks to an underwhelming line-up of new films. Also, The Hunger Games had the smallest drop in the top 10, now $6 million ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the same point in its run.

So Think Like a Man repeats at #1 with $17.6 million, that’s a 10-day total of $60.4 million which is already 5 times its $12 million production budget. To think that not even distributor Screen Gems had much in the way of faith when it came to this flick, releasing Think Like a Man in little over 2000 theaters.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits was 2nd with a middling $11.1 million opening. That must be the lowest debut I’ve ever seen for an Aardman animation, although I’m not gonna proclaim the death of stop-motion just yet. We still got ParaNorman and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie scheduled for 2012.

The Hunger Games remained 3rd with a new gross of $10.8 million, totalling $372 million in 38 days. $390 million seems like a done deal and there is even a small chance it could eventually reach $400 million. The Lucky One was 4th with $10.8 million or $39.4 million after 10 days.

The film I thought would lead the weekend, The Five-Year Engagement, was an underwhelming 5th with a $10.6 million opening. That’s way below what past films from Jason Segel and director Nick Stoller have done in the past, flicks like Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($17.7 million opening) and Get Him to the Greek ($17.5 million opening). Personally I blame the marketing guys for the failure of this film, I mean the first really good trailer for The Five-Year Engagement came just little over one week ago.

The last new wide openers of the weekend were in 6th and 7th, namely Safe starring Jason Statham with $7.8 million and The Raven starring John Cusack with $7.2 million. For Jason Statham, Safe is on the lower end of his career box office wise while Cusack, well, he’s had much worse.

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Quite a weekend this was, with two surprisingly strong new entries and for the first time in a month Katniss Everdeen did not finish first. There was also a nature documentary posting a new record for the genre, while at the same time cracking the top 5.

Sony/Screen Gems comedy Think Like a Man made its debut in 1st place with a staggering $33.6 million. I say staggering because you just don’t see this level of success from an all-black comedy, unless Tyler Perry is involved. If it can stay strong in the next 2-3 weeks, then I could see a potential $100 million by the end of its run.

In 2nd we had The Lucky One with $22.5 million. Believe it or not, that’s actually the 2nd best opening for a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, only Dear John (2010) ranking higher with $30.4 million. Like almost every other Sparks film, it will likely triple that opening weekend when all is said and done, so $60-70 million in North America.

The odds have been in Katniss Everdeen’s favor over the past 4 weeks, but not anymore with the film dropping to 3rd. That being said, thanks to another $14.6 million this weekend (2nd smallest drop in the top 10), The Hunger Games has reached a colossal $357 million in North America, making it the current 19th highest grosser of all time. Actually by the time you read this, the film will already be 18th and getting ever so close to 17th (The Passion of Christ, $370.7 million). To give you an idea of just how strong The Hunger Games has been week over week, after 7 days in release the film was at $189.9 million. Now the last chapter in the Harry Potter series had made $226.1 million after 7 days, so there was a $36.2 million gap between the two. After 31 days, The Hunger Games sits just $0.3 million shy of Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the same point in its run. That film finished with $381 million in North America so The Hunger Games might go up to $390 million. What’s more impressive is that Katniss had no 3D to aid her.

Nature documentaries aren’t exactly what you’d expect to find in a box office top 10 but in the last few years Disney has consistently opened them around Earth Day. They found moderate success at the box office with titles like Earth (2009, $32 million), Oceans (2010, $19.4 million) and African Cats (2011, $15.4 million). In 2012 we have Chimpanzee opening with $10.6 million, a new record for nature documentaries.

Rounding out the top 5 was The Three Stooges with $9.7 million for a 10-day total of $29.9 million.

The Cabin in the Woods, an almost perfect genre deconstruction piece and one of my favorite films of 2012 thus far, was 6th with $8 million. That means $27.2 million after 10 days, making The Cabin in the Woods the 18th highest grossing horror-comedy of all time for now.

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Thanks to an underperforming American Reunion and a less than stellar Titanic 3D, The Hunger Games took 1st place again, making this its 3rd consecutive win. The last film to do something like this was, interesting enough, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 back in November-December last year.

But, mind you, Breaking Dawn Part 1 had $246.9 million after 17 days (or 3 weekends) while The Hunger Games, after taking in another $33.1 million this past weekend, has a total of $302.4 million, quite a hefty difference there. Also that makes The Hunger Games the 6th fastest film to ever reach $300 million in North America, but more on that here.

In 2nd place we have newcomer American Reunion, the 4th theater-released entry in the now rather old American Pie franchise. American Reunion grossed a disappointing $21.5 million on its opening weekend. To put this number in perspective, the original American Pie (1999) took $18.7 million during its first weekend while the subsequent sequels had $45.1 million (American Pie 2, 2001) and $33.3 million (American Wedding, 2003). So after a 9 year hiatus (at least in theaters, since there were a few direct-to-video spin-offs made in that time), this series seems to have lost a lot of steam. A bit unfortunate since this is actually a pretty good comedy (speaking as a long-time fan). American Pie finished with $102.5 million in North America, the first sequel made $145.1 million while American Wedding had $104.5 million. Based on those numbers, American Reunion is headed for $60-70 million at best.

The 3D re-release of Titanic was 3rd with $17.2 million, a number some might find small considering this was after all the highest grossing film of all time for 12 years. Well, actually Titanic 3D started rolling on Wednesday so it has made $25.6 million so far in 5 days. Now Titanic (1997) opened with $28.6 million during its original release and had $40.2 million after 5 days. A good 14 years of inflation and overpriced 3D tickets were not enough for Titanic 3D to at least match those numbers. So a possible return to the top (and by that I mean highest grosser of all time) is, for lack of a better word, impossible. Right now Titanic has a total of $626.4 million while Avatar is at $760.5 million, so basically the James Cameron drama needs another $134.1 million to beat the James Cameron sci-fi. Man, it must be tough being James Cameron.

4th is holdover Wrath of the Titans in its 2nd weekend with $14.7 million and a 56% drop, that percentage being about the only thing Wrath has on par with Clash of the Titans. After 10 days Wrath of the Titans has made $58.6 million while Clash of the Titans was at $110.2 million. This is now the 2nd massive underperforming sequel for Warner Bros. in the last 5 months after Happy Feet 2 failed to even match 1/3 of the original’s total.

Finally, rounding out the top 5 was Mirror Mirror with $11 million. That brings the Snow White story to $36.7 million total after 10 days. Universal will be hoping their version, Snow White and the Huntsman, performs a lot better this summer.

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Wrath of the Titans and Mirror Mirror were no match for the box office juggernaut that is The Hunger Games, so it continued to lead for a second consecutive weekend. While the latter fell a bit more then I was anticipating, it still made more than any Twilight film to date in the same amount of time.

Actually The Hunger Games, 3rd highest opener of all time in North America, is now the 5th fastest 10-day grosser ever thanks to a 2nd weekend of $58.5 million. That brings the film to a total of $248.4 million, as mentioned before, in just 10 days. The closest non-sequel to this is a distant Spider-Men with $223 million in 10 days. Also, The Hunger Games already more than tripled its $78 million reported budget and could end up 5 times higher by the end. Another thing you should know is that this is now the highest grossing film of 2012, besting The Lorax, the animation that’s 5th this weekend. At the end of the day Lionsgate have got themselves one hell of a moneymaker with The Hunger Games and I’m personally bummed that I didn’t buy shares in the company a year ago. Soon enough the big 5 (Universal, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, Fox) will become the big 6.

Next up was Wrath of the Titans with a $33.4 million debut, almost half the $63.8 million made by Clash of the Titans back in 2010. This must surely be quite a disappointment for Warner Bros., Wrath of the Titans cost them more money to make ($150 million versus $125 million) and could end up at half the total of Clash of the Titans ($163.2 million). Fortunately for this film, international audiences have come to the rescue yet again so when all is said and done Wrath of the Titans should double its budget worldwide.

Another disappointment, but somewhat expected, was Mirror Mirror, opening at just $18.1 million. Now this being a family movie, it might have above average legs at the box office but even so, I doubt it can match that $85 million budget that went into making this. Seriously, what the hell was so expensive in Mirror Mirror? It certainly doesn’t look the part of an $85 million film, at least from what I’ve seen.

21 Jump Street was 4th with the smallest drop in the top 10, down 27.6% for $14.8 million and a total of $92.8 million in 17 days. Now we wait for a sequel, hopefully sooner rather than later.

In 5th place Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax gathered $7.7 million, bringing the film to a nice total of $189.3 million. This is still on track to pass the $200 million mark sometime this month.

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The odds have definitely been in The Hunger Games’ favor with the 3rd highest opening weekend of all time in North America. With predictions ranging from $100 to 150 million, The Hunger Games beat even the craziest expectations with $152.5 million in 3 days, more than any other movie ever for Lionsgate. Also, The Hunger Games currently holds the highest opening weekend ever for a non-sequel.

So what else did The Hunger Games achieve last weekend? Well it had the 5th highest grossing opening day and the 4th Friday ($67.2 million), the 2nd Saturday ever ($50.3 million) and the 7th Sunday of all time ($34.8 million). This is something we just don’t see any more outside of sequels and the fact that The Hunger Games reached such heights without the help of inflated 3D tickets makes this weekend even more impressive. Actually, The Hunger Games probably sold more tickets over its opening weekend than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, although that had a $169.1 million debut, helped by 3D. Numbers aside, The Hunger Games is a great movie and it deserves the success it’s getting. With such a start to this franchise, I can’t wait to see what Catching Fire, the sequel based on the second book written by Suzanne Collins, will do at the box office. Now granted, when you begin a series as high as this, it won’t be fair to expect the exact same level of success from the sequels. Look at Harry Potter and how Chamber of Secrets made less than the first one. Back to The Hunger Games, with this opening the film could end up anywhere between $350 million and $500 million in North America, neither extremes would surprise me at this point.

Strangely enough, there were other movies out there besides The Hunger Games, one of those being our 2nd place, 21 Jump Street. With $20.4 million, the buddy comedy is now at $70.2 million after 10 days, quite a lot and it seems Sony is already working on a sequel.

In 3d place was Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax with $13.2 million and $177.4 million so far. In a month or so The Lorax should reach the $200 million milestone in North America.

John Carter falls behind even more in 4th place with $5 million for a 17 day total of $62.4 million. At this rate the $250 million sci-fi will barely reach $75 million in North America, hardly what Disney was expecting when they green lit the project.

Act of Valor rounds out the top 5 with $2 million and $65.9 million so far.

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As expected 21 Jump Street had no trouble taking the top spot with a strong opening. In 2nd The Lorax continued what has so far been a very good box office run, while John Carter crashed in its 2nd weekend, shattering any hope the movie ever had to reach the $100 million mark in North America. Overall it was a decent weekend but we seriously need more than just one wide opening a week. That need is starting to show in the chart.

With a $36.2 million weekend, 21 Jump Street took home the number 1 spot. This is the 4th highest opening we’ve had in 2012 so far. This buddy comedy is certainly looking at a healthy box office run in the coming weeks, one that should push it past the $100 million mark. Made on a $42 million budget, Sony is looking at a genuine hit right here so definitely look out for news of a sequel in the near future. Though, the way Sony love to beat around the bush (Zombieland 2 still has a huge question mark), we might not see a 21 Jump Street sequel anytime soon.

The Lorax made $22.7 million in its 3rd weekend for a total of $158.3 million after 17 days. That’s now more than Horton Hears a Who! ($154.5 million) as far as Dr. Seuss adaptations go but still very far from the current leader, How the Grinch Stole Christmas ($260 million). Also The Lorax is the 3rd consecutive (out of just as many films made) $100+ million grosser for animation studio Illumination Entertainment (something I forgot to mention last week).

In 3rd place we have a disappointing John Carter, down 55% to $13.5 million. Sadly, on a huge $250 million budget, John Carter is behind fellow box office dud Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by $6.4 million already, at the same point in its run. That film came cheaper ($200 million) and is still considered a flop for the house of mouse. The prospect of a The Gods of Mars at this point is at an all time low and even that’s an overstatement. And yes, whether we like it or not, John Carter will lose a lot of money.

Project X took quite a hit courtesy of 21 Jump Street, now in 4th with $4 million, bringing its total to $48.1 million. This is the 3rd found footage hit we’ve had in 2012 in just 3 months.

Rounding out the top 5 was Act of Valor with $3.7 million for $62.4 million so far. I must say the box office legs on this flick are really impressive. Usually these types of military films don’t perform as well over time but Act of Valor proves to be the exception to the rule.

Somewhat of a surprise this past weekend was Casa De Mi Padre, the Will Ferrell telenovelas spoof, shot almost entirely in Spanish. That film made it into the top 10 (9th place) with $2.2 million from just 382 theaters.

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The Lorax claimed first place again in the light of John Carter‘s failure to surpass its already mediocre expectations. To say that John Carter has an uphill battle in the race to recoup its $250 million budget is a giant understatement at the very least. Then there were the other new wide releases, Silent House and A Thousand Words, none offering any sort of punch at the box office.

So the tiny orange moustache wielding Lorax took home top honors again with $38.8 million, that’s $121.7 million in the grand scheme of things (read 10 days) and makes this the new highest grosser of 2012. Not too shabby but also not the first time a Dr. Seuss adaptation has lead a premature year. Back in 2008 Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! opened in the middle of March and a few weeks later it was the top grossing film that year, that was until Iron Man came and took the lead. I have a feeling the Robert Downey Jr. played hero will repeat that feat against The Lorax when The Avengers opens in May.

John Carter opened with $30.1 million, and let me break down this number for you guys. Looking back, that debut is almost even with the 2010 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, another big budget live-action Disney epic that should have been more then it ended up being. That film finished with $90.7 million in North America so at first glance that’s where John Carter might be headed, but not quite. You see, the hero of Mars started the weekend with just $9.8 million (less than the Prince). That was supposed to turn a 3-day opening of $26-27 million, but that’s not the case for John Carter since it went up on Saturday with $12.3 million and then had the smallest top 10 drop on Sunday. That’s a good omen for the film but unfortunately with numbers this small, John Carter faces an impossible task when it comes to covering its $250 million budget. For better or worse, I very much enjoyed John Carter and it’s probably my favorite film so far this year (of the ones I saw). I can see this being my new guilty pleasure for years to come. Sadly John Carter can’t jump on Earth as high as he could on Mars.

In 3rd place Project X turned in $11.1 million for a $39.7 million 10 day total. Can you say sequel? I certainly can and it seems Warner already did, after all, the film only cost $12 million to make.

Act of Valor kept its head up in 4th with $6.9 million (actually just $8.123 shy of $7 million). That brings the active duty Navy SEALs flick to $56 million after 17 days. I could see Relativity attempting to get a sequel out of this considering the budget was only $12 million the first time around.

Silent House, a remake of a very low budget Uruguayan 2010 horror flick, was 5th in its opening weekend with just $6.6 million. This is certainly far from a good number and on the low end of the genre.

The last new wide release of the weekend was the Eddie Murphy comedy A Thousand Words with $6.1 million, a number we’ve come to expect from the once extremely bankable star. At least A Thousand Words fared better then the last solo endeavors of Eddie Murphy, Imagine That ($5.5 million opening) and Meet Dave ($5.2 million0. You see, Paramount had this film shelved for a while now and after the success of Tower Heist they probably hoped Eddie Murphy’s star would rise again. Clearly they were wrong.

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The tiny orange peanut shaped hero called The Lorax proved to be a real monster at the box office, surpassing even the wildest expectations and providing the 3rd highest opening ever for the month of March. Also impressive was the other new release, found footage R-rated teen comedy Project X.

Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax grossed an absolutely amazing $70.2 million over the weekend, the highest ever for a Dr. Seuss adaptation. It is also the biggest opener for animation studio Illumination Entertainment, beating previous leader Despicable Me ($56.4 million) by a good amount. So yeah, this proved to be a most impressive debut for an animated flick, actually the biggest we’ve had since Shrek Forever After back in May 2010 and with John Carter tracking really low for next weekend, we might see a repeat in 1st place from the little orange hero. Either way The Lorax will end up as one of the biggest hits of 2012. The target here is $251.5 million, the total North American gross of Despicable Me and The Lorax already has a lead on that.

In 2nd place Project X took in $21 million, that’s the 6th best debut for a found footage film but only 3rd this year behind both Chronicle ($22 million) and The Devil Inside ($33.7 million). As is with this sub-genre, I expect a big drop next weekend so Project X could end up somewhere around $40-45 million when all will be said and done.

Act of Valor was 3rd with $13.5 million, a very respectable -44.5% drop and so the film has made $45.1 million after only 10 days in theaters.

In 4th place Safe House generated $7.3 million for $108.3 million after 24 days. That puts the film $7.2 million behind Denzel Washington’s most successful flick, American Gangster, through the same point in its run. With that in mind I think Safe House is now headed for no more than $120 million.

Tyler Perry’s latest was 5th with $7 million and that’s $25.8 million after 10 days. The film in question, Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds, is still the least successful feature of the now famous actor and will probably remain that way since I don’t see it finishing above $35 million.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was 6th with $6.5 million ($82.5 million), The Vow 7th thanks to $6 million ($111.6 million) and I was wrong about Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance leaving the top 10 this weekend. The stupid and pointless sequel was 9th with $4.5 million and only $44.8 million thus far.

I was also wrong about The Artist finally venturing into the top 10. The film was only 11th with $3.6 million ($36.8 million). Unfortunately a Best Picture win was not enough to push the black and white silent film high enough. Ultimately The Artist might become the 2nd film (as far as data is available) to win a Best Picture Oscar and not reach the top 10, The Hurt Locker in 2009 being the first.

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There wasn’t much in the way of competition for Act of Valor last weekend so it was an easy win. Meanwhile Typer Perry’s Good Deeds ended up in 2nd on the lower end of expectations and Journey 2 remained strong in 3rd, above all other holdovers.

Act of Valor took home $24.7 million over the weekend so with that we now have 11 movies that opened above $20 million in the first 2 months of 2012. That’s a lot considering 2010 had 6 while 2011 only had 5. Back to Act of Valor, Relativity Media did a terrific job marketing the film and this first place shows that. The active duty Navy SEALs action flick could end up with $50-60 million in North America.

In 2nd place Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds was a bit softer than anticipated with $15.5 million. That’s way down from the $24.5 million average opening for Tyler Perry and since this ain’t one of his Madea films, it’s an ok debut that could push the film to $35-40 million by the end of its run. It’s too soon to tell but this could become the least successful film of Tyler Perry’s acting career.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was 3rd with $13.8 million that brings the Jules Verne inspired 3D adventure to an impressive $76.6 million after $17 days. The film continues to be on track to pass Journey to the Center of the Earth‘s $101.7 million sometime around the middle of March.

In 4th place Denzel Washington’s Safe House pulled $10.9 million, again ahead of The Vow‘s $9.9 million. Thing is, the later stands at $102.9 million becoming the first 2012 flick to reach that mark while Safe House has $97.6 million, both after just 17 days and on their way to over $125 million.

The other two wide releases of the weekend, Wanderlust and Gone, bombed at the box office with $6.5 and $4.7 million in 8th and 9th place.

On the Oscar front, Best Picture winner The Artist was 13th with $2.9 million for $31.7 million so far, making it one of the least successful winners in history (The Hurt Locker made just 17 million in 2009). Hugo got 5 awards at the Oscars but at the box office it was only 16th with $1.5 million and a grand total of $69.3 million. Another winner, The Descendants, finished the weekend with $2.1 million in 15th place. The Alexander Paynea-directed drama starring George Clooney has grossed $78.4 million so far.

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In a rather interesting turn of events Safe House managed to take advantage of Ghost Rider‘s underwhelming debut and claim the number one spot, one that was barely lost a week ago against The Vow, now a close second. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was incredible in 3rd place with the smallest drop in the top 10 while This Means War performed as expected.

Safe House, last week’s number two, was first this time around with $27.5 million over the long 4-day weekend. That means the Denzel Washington flick has made $81.8 million in 11 days, just $1.5 million under American Gangsters at the same point in its run, that being the highest grossing movie for the actor. It won’t top that one, but it should still make around $120 million before it leaves theaters for good.

The Vow was second with $26.6 million, a great result that pushes the flick to $88.5 million after 11 days. That’s already more than Dear John ($80M) and The Notebook ($81M) made for their respective stars, Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. The Vow is now also the biggest hit for Screen Gems and contrary to what I said last week, it should make it to $100 million before Safe House.

In 3rd place Journey 2: The Mysterious Island gathered an outstanding $25.9 million, which is absolutely insane and with $59 million after 11 days, I won’t be surprised if this ends up finishing its run ahead of both Safe House and The Vow. It’s definitely a stretch today but it might not be in a few weeks from now as long as the 3D Jules Verne inspired flick can keep this pace. But hey, if Journey to the Center of the World is any indication, then Journey 2: The Mysterious Island will most definitely finish north of $120 million in North America, maybe enough, maybe not.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is a disappointing 4th with $25.4 million over the 4-day weekend, that’s less than half the $52 million of the original Ghost Rider back in 2007 without 3D. Now Sony is saying the movie only cost $57 million, so about half the $110 million spent on the original. Still, I see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance falling like a rock in the coming weekends, even harder than the original. I doubt the film will end up matching its $57 million budget in North America before the end of its run (which will be very soon, so save your money for a DVD or Blue-Ray rental instead).

Rounding out the top 5 was This Means War, the spy comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy (Inception) and Chris Pine (Star Trek). The flick grossed a decent $20 million over the long 4-day weekend. That’s an above average opening for Reese Witherspoon and This Means War might end up with $50 million or so in North America.

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